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Australian pub rock band Amyl and the Sniffers have criticised the British media’s “frenzied” response to Irish band Kneecap and punk-rap duo Bob Vylan’s performances at Glastonbury, following earlier comments about the United Kingdom and Australian governments not doing enough for Palestinians.
UK police said they were considering whether to launch an investigation, but did not name Bob Vylan or Kneecap, who also appeared on the same stage and criticised Israel at the music festival.
The comments were condemned by the Israeli embassy in the UK as “inflammatory and hateful rhetoric”, while UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer labelled them “appalling hate speech”.
Festival organisers said the Bob Vylan comments “crossed a line”.
Organisers of the Glastonbury music festival have criticised the remarks made by punk-rap duo Bob Vylan. Source: AP / Yui Mok
‘Desperate for our governments to listen’
The lead singer of Amyl and the Sniffers, Amy Taylor, took to social media on Monday to criticise the media’s response to the sets, suggesting there was a disconnect between public sentiment, governments and the media on the issue.
“The British media in a frenzee (sic) about Bob Vylan & Kneecap but artists all weekend at Glastonbury from pop to rock to punk to rap to DJs spoke up on stage & there were tonnes of flags on every streamed set,” Taylor wrote on Instagram.
“Trying to make it look like a couple of isolated incidents and a couple of ‘bad bands’ so that it appears the public isn’t as anti-genocide as it is, and trying to make it look like Bob and kneecap are one offs, instead of that the status quo has shifted majorly and that people are concerned and desperate for our govs to listen.”
Israel denies accusations it is committing genocide or acts of genocide in Gaza.
Earlier, Taylor was among several artists at Glastonbury who used their platform to criticise the UK and Australian governments over their response to the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza.
“I’m thinking about the people in Palestine. I’m thinking about yeah, and all our governments, like we’re from Australia, they ain’t doing jack s–t. I know yours ain’t doing jack s–t,” she had said on stage.
“If we think about Palestine, then back home in Australia, we think about the Indigenous people there.
“We think about the fact that us as whiteys, we’re the f—ing colonisers, and that’s so disgusting.”
Among other artists who have spoken out on the issue at the festival were Elijah Hewson, the lead singer of Dublin band Inhaler and the son of U2 frontman Bono, and Irish singer Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, known professionally as CMAT.
